From the jump-off let's be clear that this is a TECHNOLOGY review as opposed to an album review.
Jesal Padania previously covered this album in December of 2008.
I will be commenting on the album as relates to the quality and enjoyability of this format, but the scores at the end
of this review relate only to the convenience and the quality of the slotMusic product.

So what IS "slotMusic" exactly? Based on the packaging you might at first think it was a CD single in one of
those eco-friendly recycled packaging sleeves. Even though the size is approximately the same as a regular retail CD
the weight is nothing like it when you pick it up - it's as light as a feather. That's exactly as it should be given
this is a micro-sized product which appears to be targetted first and foremost at cell-phone users. Since most cell
phone providers charge $1.99 or more per song for the "convenience" of buying music through their network (double the
going rate at iTunes) a lot of customers will no doubt be thrilled to know they can buy an entire album for under $15.
Those consumers will undoubtedly be familiar with microSD technology, where the tiny little chip you can see through
the cover IS the whole album, as opposed to a 2 GB memory expansion so you can download more games and ringtones
(more on that in a second). SanDisk also anticipated a secondary market of
computer users who would appreciate the miniaturized size and elimination of storing a CD plus gem case, so they have
conveniently provided a USB adapter for the microSD card so you can play it on your PC.

I opted to try the cell phone application of this technology first. Being familiar with my Verizon enV
only took me a few seconds to find the microSD slot and pop the memory card I had in out, although you may need to
consult your manual and the packaging doesn't guarantee 100% compatibility with all phones anyway (encouraging you
to go to slotMusic.org to make sure it will work). In fact getting my
old memory card out was easier than getting the plastic tray with the slotMusic card inside open - I eventually gave
up prying it apart with my fingers and resorted to brute force with a pair of scissors. I can't stress
enough how tiny and easy to lose these microSD cards are, so you may want to be smart and do this exchange on a
flat surface with a white sheet of typing paper underneath - drop one of these in your couch or recliner and you're
as good as screwed. The downside of swapping in slotMusic for my memory expansion is that I immediately lost all
background pictures, ringtones, photographs and songs I had downloaded. If you're not a heavy cell phone user
and all your files go to internal memory this probably isn't a problem - but if you're NOT a heavy cell
phone user then this product wasn't targetted to you to begin with! Unfortunate but unavoidable unless you've got
some sort of super souped up cell that has two microSD slots (I'm sure some brand of iPhone must have them).

As for the music I'm pleased to say it works perfectly on my cell. I went to "my music" and before I could even
key in whether I wanted to play or import the songs my phone lit up with "adding songs to your library." Awesome.
I went under "albums" and "Freedom" was already listed. I clicked "play" and "Beautiful" immediately started echoing
out of my cell phone's external speaker. Even without putting
in a pair of headphones (which sadly are Verizon specific - you can't use a standard set) sounds better than most
portable radios or Walkmans I've ever owned. Amazing how far technology has come in the last twenty-five years.
The fact I can make out every word of Kardinal's rap in "Beautiful," especially given he has a thick Canadian
patois accent, already makes the audio quality of slotMusic a thumbs up. My only complaint is that Verizon adds
an extraneous ? mark to the beginning of song names for most of the album, but that is a minor glitch that doesn't
effect playback or enjoyability one bit.

Since I want my ringtones and photos back anyway, I decided to swap my original memory back in and try this
microSD card with the enclosed USB adapter. For the record I'm doing this with a MacBook so your mileage may vary.
The adapter itself is a no-brainer since the microSD card fits together with it like a jigsaw puzzle piece.
In fact for many purchasers this adapter alone could be a purchase point, since you could offload the contents
of your cell phone's regular microSD card to your PC using this same adapter. I popped the adapter in my USB port
and a drive labelled "slotMusic" immediately popped up on my desktop. Clicking it open reveals three folders -
My Music, slotMusic Extras and slotMusic Videos. The first is exactly what you'd expect - all 14 songs from the
"Freedom" album. Clicking on any of these songs immediately opens the track in iTunes, and without any of the
extraneous ? marks that popped up on my cell phone. IMHO the sound quality is exactly comparable to a high-gloss CD rip
and you'd have to be an audiophile to tell the difference between slotMusic and a CD. I know in advance there are
reviewers who will so I can only tell you I'm writing for Joe Consumer, not Joe Bose Acoustic Engineer.

What intrigued me the most were the second and third folders, so I quickly stopped playback and went to the "Extras."
I was pleasantly surprised to find all of the album artwork in .jpg format and a promotional photo of him holding up
the slotMusic card. Having gone to that much trouble I was hoping they'd include a scan of the liner notes as well
but was disappointed to not find them anywhere. Hell I'd have settled for a PDF or even a plain text document, but
no such luck. The "Videos" folder may have been the biggest surprise, as it included Akon's videos for
"Freedom" and "Right Now" in THREE different formats - 3GP (cell phones), MP4 (QuickTime) and AVI (Windows Media).
As it turns out "Freedom" is not a music video though - it's more of a "behind the scenes documentary" feature
but it's still appreciated. After I got done playing with all of these features and checked the packaging for
"Freedom (slotMusic)" again I realized a regular CD-sized liner WAS inserted into the shrinkwrap, placed
on the back flap instead of the front like most CD consumers would be used to. It's hard to complain about liners
not being included but I still feel a digital scan would have been convenient.

The bottom line on "slotMusic" is that I found the technology very easy to use as someone already experienced with
cell phones and memory cards, and that the technology itself performed far above my expectations in terms of audio
quality and available features. The free USB adapter is for me a big selling point for buying future slotMusic releases,
since it would be nice to have one paired with each album even when not being played via a computer or a cell phone.
Why? Well it's going to be slightly harder to lose the USB adapter than it is the tiny microSD card, so I'll plan to
keep the album in the slot whenever I'm not using it. This is the kind of change the music industry has needed to make
for a while now in terms of making albums more convenient and accessible to the user, so I hope it catches on in '09.